40-42" LCD TV Shopping Advice

[Voltron]

My sister & brother-in-law are looking for an LCD TV in the 42" range and want to spend about $1200 max. 1080p and decent connectivity are a must, built-in speakers are not. Will be wall-mounted.

Given that the last thread on this topic is a year old, I thought I would see what people suggest so I can help them make a good purchase. Let me know if you have any brands, models, or stores/online shops to recommend or to avoid.

Thanks!

[Dusty Chalk]

The new LED's are thin (this is in response to the wall-mount requirement) -- I believe Samsung is leading the fray here; might be over your budget.

I love the Sharp Aquos LCD's -- especially the 42" and 46". They have new 120Hz or 240Hz or something ones. I'd recommend 120Hz or 240Hz.

[Voltron]

Their LCD choice is based on energy consumption. I am a plasma fan myself and may see what the difference amounts to. They don't watch a ton of TV so it cannot be that big of a deal.

[Dusty Chalk]

Depends how much sunlight one has to contend with (I.E. if you're going to be watching in the day and don't have room-darkening shades and/or willing to use them), then they may not be best.

Otherwise yes, but are there any 42" 1080p <US$1200 plasmas? Oh, look at that, the Panasonic has one or two...

[manaox2]

After shopping around a little bit, I don't know if I would recommend the LED tech yet, it is mostly used by manufacturers to backlight the LCD and doesn't seem to have much of an actual effect on picture quality from what I've been reading. I don't think its worth trying to fit in that price range.

I would go for 120hz or 240hz LCD for LCD, it might not be noticeable for 85% of what you watch, but probably notice a difference on those fast panning sports games and the few bright color commercials out there.

Samsung has pretty much been leading the game, although I'm not a fan of their glossy screen, it does reflect a lot. The Sony Bravia line seem to do fine with an anti-glare coating.

Dusty has a point about the plasma. At naturally 600Hz and cheaper price tag, it does a good job. It won't achieve maybe the blackest blacks and the brightest colors and is a bit wider and heavier then the thinner LCDS, but the burn in images and such problems of the originals have been practically eliminated and they save you a third of the cost.

[Aimless1]

I purchased a 47 inch LCD about 6 weeks ago. LED is not quite ready for prime time IMO. Basically it is used for back lighting. Unless the user is a videophile I doubt it would be noticeable in 98% of viewing. Even though I don't watch that much TV, 240hz was important to me for sports. Although my wife watches a fair amount of television it really wouldn't make a difference to her based on her viewing preferences.

I did consider the plasmas, but even with anti glare coating they didn't fare as well as the Toshiba with auto dimming. The room the TV is in is very bright and gets full sun in the afternoon as the windows all face west.

I ended up with a Toshiba Regza. In my case it was clearly my best value. Very happy. The picture quality is very close to my Sony XBR960 CRT. Also considered various Samsung models, which were very good but were not a clear step up from the Toshiba, and cost quite a bit more. Sony seemed a step behind in my size range, but ranked a solid third. Best of all ... I was able to support an independently owned store that price matched. It's our last A/V dedicated store in the metro area.

[Voltron]

Thanks for the input guys. I was looking at LEDs and they are on the high end of the range for any given size. Football watching is key for brother-in-law, while the sister-in-law could probably not care less other than a decent picture.

[swt61]

While I love my plasma, I'm going to agree that it's not the best choice in a bright room. I also agree that the 120hz, and preferably 240hz is a must for sports. I like the Samsung LCDs best.

[ronnielee54]

I have had really good luck with LG's. They seem to be a pretty good bang for the buck brand.

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

I've been looking at a cheap full HD 42" LG tv that have gotten good comments from buyers (whatever that's worth...)

It's supposedly got good contrast around 50 000:1, reasonably fast 5ms, but the update speed is not specified. The model one step up is 100 hz, 80 000:1. Then assuming this model is 50hz, does the additional 50hz matter really?

I was trying to see for myself in three different stores, but the demo content wasn't the high-speed action movies that the sellers told me would reveal differences.... instead it was slow-paced or low-quality. The sellers in all three stores seemed to know roughly what was written on the TVs, sometimes less, so I don't trust them much.

Should I spend 100-200 euro on adding 50hz?

LG 42LH3000 Televisions TV/Audio/Video

[Dusty Chalk]

Are you in Europe? That sounds like PAL or SECAM. Over here, it is recommended to go from 60 Hz to 120 Hz or 240 Hz because it's an even multiple of 24 fps, so the maths are easier. Going from 50 Hz to 100 Hz doesn't make the maths any easier (because it's still based on 24 fps), so you lose that. It could still theoretically be good, but you really need to go into a store and see for yourself. Look for a scene where they pan side to side. If you can't tell the difference on the material that they're showing you, then I wouldn't get it. They're probably not showing it to you for a reason ("most people can't tell the difference" being my guess).

[NightWoundsTime]

A couple things I found when buying a TV last year (and again after the first got stolen).

Samsungs are indeed excellent but you have to be careful that your panel was actually manufactured by Samsung. There are lots of places to find which product numbers correspond to genuine Samsung panels, usually the product number followed by an "A" rather than a B or higher. Beware of Best Buy sales, they're always on the imposter panels. I ended up with a Toshiba 42" which was the best deal for the money at the time.

LCD's with the flourescent backlight (like mine) indeed do not go to black. This is really only a problem with very dark scenes in movies. For football and general TV watching they'll probably never care. I haven't personally spent much time with the LED backlit TV's yet but the idea is solid.

[Voltron]

Thanks Matt and others for your continuing comments.

[Feather]

sharp ones are definitely cheap and nice ^ ^ I bought a refurbished 5 yrs ago and it still works fantastic ^ ^

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

I visited the store again today and yet again the content on the cheaper models were all cable TV or similar low-quality. On the very expensive models, they played cartoons from blu-ray players. None of the TV:s showed fast panning scenes with immense blackness.

I decided to go for a quite cheap 42" LG that got good consumer reviews. In any case, the specifications for it is a lot better than more expensive models from 2007 that were on sale there.

The black isn't completely black, but it would have cost me three times as much to get extra blackness.

[Dusty Chalk]

$$$ in pocket == good.